Family’s confusing NJ address costs them $10K to school district

A woman who lives in Brick but has a Howell mailing address owes the Howell township school district more than $10,000 because she sent her child to the wrong district.

The woman, identified in a recent state commissioner of education decision by the initials T.K., had enrolled her child in 2014 using a Howell mailing address for the family's home.

The woman was called by the Howell schools in December 2016 informing her that as the home is actually in Brick, the student was enrolled in the wrong district.

Such mix-ups are not uncommon in New Jersey because the mailing addresses used by the Post Office don't always match municipal boundaries.

In September, an administrative law judge ruled that the family should not have to reimburse the district for the total time the student was in Howell schools, but rather only from the time they were aware of the issue.

A determination was made by the district and the administrative law judge that the district was owed tuition for 124 days at a rate of $84.24 per day, for a total of $10,445.76. The commissioner this month adopted the decision.